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Eurovision Song Contest 2009
The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 28th annual Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Athens, Greece, following Kalomira's win in the 2008 Contest with the song "Secret Combination". Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi (ERC) chose the Olympic Indoor Hall the venue following the consideration of several venues within Greece. The two semi-finals of the contest took place on 19 and 21 May 2009, with the final taking place on the evening of 23 May 2009. Thirty-nine countries participated, including Liechtenstein, who debuted in this contest. Bulgaria, Georgia and Montenegro withdrew from the 2009 contest. The contest was won by singer Yohanna from Iceland with the song "Is It True?" which was written by Óskar Páll Sveinsson, Tinatin Japaridze, Chris Neil. "Is It True?" earned a total of 260 points in the final, placing it in the top spot. Turkey finished in second place, with Estonia finishing in third. Finland achieved its first top 5 placing, finishing in 4th place and Albania completed the top 5 in 5th place. Spain and the United Kingdom were the only two members of the "Big Five" that managed to rank within the top 10, finishing in 7th and 9th respectively. France just missed out on the top 10, in 11th place and Germany finished in 15th place. Italy ended in a disappointing 26th and last place in the final. Format In a meeting of the Eurovision Reference Group in 2008, the group decided that the voting system would remain the same as was used in the 2008 contest, so the voting lines for the public would open at the beginning of the show. The results format of each show also remained the same with each country's vote being decided on a 50:50 split between televoting and a national jury. Each participating country had their own national jury, which consisted of five professional members of the music industry. Under the official rules of the EBU, the number of finalists was raised to 26. This is due to the fact that in 2008, the contest was hosted in a Big 5 country, the United Kingdom. This includes the Big 5, the host country and ten qualifiers from each of the semi-finals. Participating countries On 19 January 2009, the EBU announced that fourty countries would take part in the 2009 contest. This is the lowest number of participants since the 2004 contest, in which there was 38. The 28th edition saw the debut of Liechtenstein and the withdrawals of Bulgaria (due to financial concerns), Georgia (also due to financial doubts and low interest, however they later announced their participating in the 2010 contest) and Montenegro (citing low interest as their reasoning). 'Returning artists' Five artists returned in this year's contest. Sirusho from Armenia who previously participated in the 2008 contest with the song "I Like It", which placed 7th in the semi-final and 17th place in the final with 62 points. Eva Boto previously participated as a solo artist for Slovenia in the 2007 contest with the song "Verjamem", despite predictions to finish high in the final, it placed 12th in the semi-final and it not advance to the grand final. Sweden's Eric Saade performed the song "Popular" in the 2006 contest. He qualified from the semi-final, placing 1st and went on to win the contest with 265 points. Both Yohanna for Iceland and Getter Jaani for Estonia previously participated in the 2005 contest. Jaani represented Estonia in 2005 with the song, "NYC Taxi" which qualified from the semi-final in 6th position and finished in 18th place with 48 points in the final. Yohanna performed the song "I Miss You" and placed 1st in her respective semi final and finished 2nd with 257 points in the final, behind the winners, Azerbaijan. Results 'Semi-finals' 'Semi-final 1' 'Semi-final 2' 'Final' 'Split jury/televote results' Scoreboards 'Semi-final 1' 'Semi-final 2' Other countries * Italy – After bad results after multiple contests, the Italian broadcaster RAI have not yet expressed if they will enter the 28th Contest or not. However, on December 17, 2012, RAI announced that Italy would compete in the 2009 contest. * Liechtenstein – The country's official EBU broadcaster, 1FLTV (1 Furstentum Liechtenstein Television) announced that they have been granted a membership and will be debuting in the 2009 Contest. * Bulgaria – Bulgaria will not participate in the 2009 Contest. * Georgia – It was confirmed by GPB, Georgia's broadcaster, that due to financial doubts and lack of interest, it would withdraw from the 2009 Contest, but has not ruled out a 2010 return. * Montenegro – After just a short time competing, Montenegrin broadcaster RTCG once again have announced they will not compete in the 2009 Edition and a future with the EBU is in doubt.